David Attenborough [whispering]: “Like a grain of sand in a vast desert, the predator blends seamlessly into its environment, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye.”

A Hampton Inn in Asheville just canceled my family's reservation because our address (incorrectly) showed Asheville—and the hotel bars locals within 50 miles. When I asked why, they said, "because of our homeless population," adding that most hotels here have similar policies. This is outrageous.

someone corrected my german, confidently citing chatgpt. i'm a native german speaker, with a master in german literature from a german university.

JD Vance’s French Horn Solo Booed At Kennedy Center https://theonion.com/jd-vances-french-horn-solo-booed-at-kennedy-center/

That’s a great question. You know, when I think about great questions like that, I always find it helps to be able to rub my chin thoughtfully. Which is why I use Harry’s Razors. And if you’re reading this comment I have a great offer for you

I’ve been wondering for years how the podcast economy works. (For a brief pyramid-scheme moment a few years ago, it seemed like most ads were for other podcasts.) Ros Taylor’s piece explains some current developments. (I, a Spotify listener, can’t bear the pivot to video, but now I understand.)

Okay, these people are terrifying. techpolicy.press/digital-euge...

Make a Bond movie casual You Live, Like, Two or Three Times

Make a Bond movie casual SixSevenpussy

A few days ago, I wrote up some thoughts on generative AI and the work of historians: “At best, we’re talking about software that’s very good at making sentences seem sentence-shaped.”

It happened again!

“It must be remembered that at this point [subject] had not yet [verb].” Very common Trollope maneuver.

I, for one, am excited about the prospect of my new job assembling the iPhone 35 Ultra Max Pro XL in zero gravity.

Altman is bullshitting at Musk's level now.

He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

Join me

Trump's in the Epstein files over 600 times.

I'm an "A.i." abolitionist. Here's why. gregpak.net/2025/12/19/i...

The AI voice reading @nytimes.com stories pronounces “Epstein” “Epstine” but “Epstein’s” “Epsteen’s.”

Just learned that crank calls had telegraphic predecessors—telegrams sent to L. E. Phant or Lynn C. Doyle. (I had to say that one out loud.) Crank wires were part of the hazing (“salting”) of telegraph operators. (I’m finally reading Tom Standage’s The Victorian Internet. @tomstandage.bsky.social )

Wordle 1,645 2/6 🟩⬜⬜🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

“The memo, first published by Fox News”!

Just horrifying.

From the right-wing Manhattan Institute's focus group of Gen Z conservatives -- just jaw-dropping stuff. We have a very sick society. www.city-journal.org/article/manh...

Thank you to the brilliant editors at @mid-theory.bsky.social for the chance to write about some of my favorite subjects: transfictional character, gender performance, and Daniel Craig’s tenure as a post-9/11, “serially straight” James Bond.

I’m especially fond of the William Joel Show, but it’s all so wonderful.

This is very New York Times.

It almost goes without saying, but this is illegal. The name "John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts" is established by law and the board doesn't have the power to change it. 20 USC 3 §§ 76h - 76s.

Make a story about a super powerful computer that plays chess, solves crimes, dominates trivia competitions, and does drugs; call it Watson.

President Trump says that checks for $1,776 each are going out to nearly 1.5 million servicemembers. I have questions. + When did Congress approve such a plan? + Where is the money coming from? + How is it non-taxable? Did Congress vote to do that? I'm sure there must be specific bill text.

Reposting this with alt text. Delete your Twitter. Now.

Huge thanks to the New York Times Book Review for naming the revised Cult of the Dead Cow one of its three nonfiction paperback picks of the week. Here is no-paywall version: www.pilotonline.com/2025/12/17/p... #books #hacking

I have no idea how or why that link got associated with my post.

US canonical version for me, more or less.

This is extremely important

There's a cross-platform uniformity to how LLMs bullshit you. Today I was designing an exercise for a responisble-use of-LLMs course we are designing for NIH trainees. I asked ChatGPT to complete one of Claude Shannon's original guessing games: "There is no reverse on a __(10 letters)__"

Probably the single most important rule of writing is that you need to know the rules well enough to know when and why you're breaking them. Doing it by accident is almost never going to work out; doing it on purpose and with reason is the key to all great writing, imo

And finally, the assault on Section 230. This is the endgame for independent speech. If you repeal 230, you don’t hurt Google or Meta—they have the lawyers to survive. You destroy the small forums, the independent blogs, the dissenters. You make the cost of speaking the truth too high to bear.

Same with TikTok. We were told it was a "national security" threat. But the forced divestiture wasn't about data privacy. It was about transfer of ownership. Handing the algorithm to politically safe tech oligarchs ensures that the last algorithmic feed not under their thumb is brought to heel.

We saw the prototype of the Nero Doctrine with Twitter. The goal wasn't to make it profitable or "free." The goal was to break the one place where news broke faster than the state could spin it. They bought the town square not to speak in it, but to burn it down so we’d have nowhere else to gather.

I just this minute blocked someone for responding to my joke about your ancestors haunting you for making latkes wrong by telling me they wouldn't because Not Everyone's Ancestors are Ashkenazi

Chomsky has kind of always been a sucker for anti-establishment branding. And he's done a fair amount of genocide denial—including denying genocide and atrocities by Pol Pot (!), China with regard to Uyghurs, Assad. 1

Misplaced, surely.

If I had to convey one thing about A.I. to people, it would be this.